Rhea’s Story. Part 15.

(Photo of me & mom doing tambourine dance in costumes she designed and sewed - hats included - after one of her many trips to Cairo where an Egyptian friend gave her a bunch of fabric pieces from their now-defunct theatre company….A story for another day…)

“I think that one of the things nowadays that confounds people is the quest for the “good life.” This tends to be true particularly for people living in a western industrialized and computerized society. It is often thought that education, and particularly higher education will provide an instant key to the “good life” which will be rendered unto us by obtaining a “good job.” Presumably a “good job” is a well paying job, and one that is respected by society in general. 

In the words of Thoreau, “Where is Walden Pond?” “Where is the contemplative life? “ “Where is the road less traveled?” 

I could go on, but my main point is that being an Oriental Dancer is an exemplary life choice. It gives one an excellent chance to study life as it is, not as we would wish to re-write it to live in a sanitized world. Once you’ve taken on the dragon of entertainment and “show-biz”, academia is rendered more accessible by having lived, much like Miss Gootch said in the play “Auntie Mame”